Israel: new apartment sales stay high in March

From the month of January to the month of March, new apartment sales were 34% of all new housing unit sales during the year 2014.

According to figures published by the Central Bureau of Statistics this week, the number of new housing units sold during the month of March 2015 remained high at 2,478. The figures also show that the number of new housing units not on sale (housing units built in the framework of buyers groups, independent construction, rental construction, and an estimate of illegal construction) is still plunging, reaching only 1,034 in March, the lowest figure for years.

The figure also show that the number of new housing units sold in March was 5% fewer than the number sold in the preceding month, but 34% more than the 1,845 units sold in March 2014.

In March 2014, then-Minister of Finance Yair Lapid announced his plan for 0% VAT. This affected the sale of homes and the mortgage market in that month and in April-November 2014.

7,663 new housing units were sold in January-March 2015, amounting to 34% of the 22,492 new housing units sold in all of 2014. This figure shows that the 0% VAT plan affected sales of housing units last year, while the outbreak of demand that began in December 2014, when the plan was canceled, is being reflected in a large number of new housing units sold.